Blind woman is able to beautifully play an instrument she has never seen

TORONTO – Kara Shaw has always been surrounded by music. Her mother Lynda Shaw is a music teacher. She recalls Kara would go to bed at night listening to the music lessons going on downstairs, and in the morning she would play the lessons she heard from the night before.

“She was fascinated with chords,” said Lynda. “Her hands were so tiny she could not play a chord with one hand. So she would play the chords with both of her hands and she would sing the melody. She was only two and a half.”

Many children are musically inclined but for 26-year-old Kara, the instrument she loves most she has never seen.

“Kara was born at 23 weeks gestation,” said Lynda. “She was not expected to live. She survived because of life-saving interventions. She is totally blind and she has Aspergers syndrome.”

“I was adopted at 10 months into a musical family,” said Kara. “So growing up around them I knew I wanted to do music for a living.”

Deb Stanson is a director at the Elora Community Theatre. She first met Kara at a fundraiser seven years ago and the two of them have not looked back.

“She has composed for me original music,” said Stanson. “I can put her backstage and she can play music throughout a whole production without being on a headset, without anyone needing to prompt her because her hearing is so acute.”

Kara plays in restaurants, retirement homes, schools and churches. She is currently employed as the music director of St. John’s United Church in Belwood, Ont.

“She played ‘Oh Canada’ for an Argos football game and she had 27,000 people in the audience and it made no difference to her,” said Lynda. “She is happy to play for 27 or 27,000. Just as long as she is able to perform for people, she is happy.”